Imagine

This morning while I was baking a rhubarb pie, I thought about heaven.  Yes….rhubarb pie…specifically rhubarb custard pie…does cause me to think about heaven, which I assume will somehow be even better than rhubarb custard pie.

My mind then wandered to the contrast between “Imagine” by John Lennon and “I Can Only Imagine” by Mercy Me.  I am thinking that John Lennon, who didn’t want to believe in either heaven or hell, may well be in one of those locations.  I wonder if he would like to come back and rewrite his lyrics.

His song is beautiful musically and wistful, but I wish it was not a frequent selection used by high school chorus teachers.  It isn’t wise to have young people believing that there is no heaven or hell, and therefore, no eternal consequences.  Lennon apparently believed that peace and harmony can only be achieved when there is no religion.  There is plenty in our world today to support the idea that we would be better without “religion,” since terrible things are done in its name.  But religion is not the same as relationship.  We need for there to be a God who loves us and who provides a standard for our conduct, a value system to guide us.  Without Him, we are just left with a vague hope in something that will not be brought about by human effort.  We as a human race have been trying to bring about peace for millennia without success.

The writer of “I Can Only Imagine” is not wistful….he is awe-struck, and appropriately so.  How can the human mind wrap itself around the idea of coming face to face with an all-powerful creator who sustains the universe?  The only reasonable response is worship.

You have a choice about this.  You can worship him now by choice or at some point in the future of necessity, but at that point, it will be too late to experience heaven.  It won’t matter whether you have believed in it or not.

Be careful what you imagine.